The Dialectic of Ideology and Technology: Gouldner's Critique of Marxist Objectivism
Alvin Gouldner's The Dialectic of Ideology and Technology represents one of the most significant sociological critiques of Marxism from within the broader tradition of critical theory. Rather than simply rejecting Marxism's analysis of ideology, Gouldner argues that Marxism must apply its own method of historical critique reflexively to itself. Reading Gouldner's discussion of the dialectic of ideology and technology, it seems to me that he is attempting to expose a fundamental limitation within Marxist analysis: its tendency to reveal the historical conditions behind other forms of knowledge while failing to fully examine the historical conditions that shape its own claims. Printing contributed to a transformation in the social organisation of discourse: ideas increasingly circulated as texts whose authority appeared to derive from their rational form rather than from the social position of their authors. Advances in printing and distribution made it possible for arguments...
